Barenboim’s greatest ‘its
OrchestrasCourtesy of a fellow-maestro.
Don’t we just long for those cover designers of a more naive era?
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Aside from the unfortunate play on the Herb Albert record cover, “Whipped Cream and Other Delights”, it’s a shame we’ve lost (to old age or death) so many “old lion” world-class conductors in the past few years.
I made a mistake of providing my full name in the comment (my first) I sent 5 minutes ago. Could I use a pseudonym or my initials (SGP) to hide my identity?
Apparently not, Seth.
Hey Seth! What’s ur middle name? And bank card number please
A genuine classic from ABC Records’ “Westminster Gold” series.
But nothing – and I mean nothing – beats this classic cover: https://i.discogs.com/6Vl6uJU0cZ6ZZQSmhTQ3W-HgtrMF3N3gmFpMXU3sgbg/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:598/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTYxNDQ2/MzQtMTQxMjE4NzM5/NC00Nzk2LmpwZWc.jpeg
And that Ring cycle isn’t all that bad! It was my first. It was more affordable than either Solti or Karajan and had a far, far better cover photo.
Vaughn Williams did a Ring, too??
If the Valkyries had arrives by VW, they would never have made it into Apocalypse Now!
One of many fantastic Westminster Gold jacket covers from the early 70s. I probably paid all of $1.99 for this back then, when it was one of the few (maybe the only) budget recordings of the Choral Fantasy.
It is also one of the relatively few truly fantastic Barenboim recordings, made in 1964, I believe.
Reminds me of a Munich Barber with a set that was just an upper naked female torso with Rosina appearing by opening a tit! Ridiculous!
The original full price Westminster LP release of Barenboim’s Concerto No 3 and Choral Fantasy was much more traditional and suitable for family viewing: a black and white head shot of an impossibly young-looking Barenboim, and in the background a rather unpleasant drawing of Beethoven that made him look like he’d been in a bar fight.
Then Westminster became a budget label and the album cover fun started.
Also memorable was the Westminster album cover in a very similar pose to that shown above, with a seemingly unclad woman holding two Volkswagen hubcaps in strategic locations. Memory says it was a part of the Sworowsky Wagner Ring Cycle. Snicker at the nudity if you will but the album cover for the Götterdämmerung release always struck me as strangely apt: a crumbled cookie.
Less salacious was the Westminsgter Gold reissue of Robert Gerle’s pairing of the violin concertos of Barber and Delius. The cover art? A cheap violin with shave cream on the lower part of the body. I am sure Gerle must have winced when he saw that one.
But another bargain Westminster reissue cover I thought was actually attractive and imaginative and an improvement over the original full priced LP cover: Robert Gerle’s complete set of the Brahms Hungarian Dances in the Joachim arrangement (at the time the only way to get all of them) where the cover art was an open violin case with luscious bunches of grapes inside rather than a violin.
More salacious, though, was the cover of Blind Faith’s only album – a topless pubescent girl holding what looked like a phallic hood ornament.
There’s an idea for Yuja…
I’ve alerted fellow Maestro that Herr Beethoven had his eyes on the ‘bassoons’ while the bassoons had their eyes on the ‘bazooms’. ….. You may now throw tomatoes at me.
Barenboim busts out with Beethoven
What’s truly tasteless about this is the context of a genius who apparently never ‘got any’.
In the words of Joni Mitchell:
In the court they carve your legend
With an apple in its jaw
And the women that you wanted
They get their laughs
Long silk stockings
On the bedposts of refinement
You’re too raw
They think you’re too raw
–“The Judgment of the Moon and Stars (Ludwig’s Tune)”
But wait! There’s more! Waste precious hours gazing upon a rather extensive collection of Westminster Gold LP covers, including the „Götterdämmering“ with two hand crumbling a cookie:
https://musiceureka.wordpress.com/2019/05/06/westminster-series/
I always liked the Mozart Requiem cover showing the very white soles of a pair of feet peaking out from under a shroud.
Thanks for this link, and my fave is “The Planets.”
It truly defies description, doesn’t it?
On this subject , how is Barenboim’s health these days ? Anybody know how badly he’s suffering ? Hope things are improving
This cover is the stuff of brain destroying nightmares.
The cover for “Israel in Egypt” was an Air Cairo flight bag (remember those) filled with bagels.
Isn’t wonderful to having fun…
She has two Beethovens but the disc has just one concerto.
B side is the Choral Fantasy for piano, choir and orchestra.
This weak work should always be on a “B” side
Actually, he’s playing the 3rd concerto, so why not three?
Renee Fleming and her appearance at the Last Night of the Proms not far off!!!
I had that album in college – still got it around here somewhere, with all my other sadly silent LPs. I love LvB’s piano concertos, and was always a fan of his Choral Fantasy (even if a lot of folks seem to sneer at it). Loved the playing too.